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Friday, October 8, 2010

We're Not Worthy!

We have met Herself. Seriously guys... Diana Gabaldon is ridiculously friendly to her fans. And as Tracey so eloquently put, "patient". She came to dinner..even though there were 45 people there (which would have scared the pantalones off me if I were her) and talked to everyone. She let a million people take photos...and graciously listened to all of our stories about why we love Outlander. Oh and by the way... She is stunning. Literally...stunning. More later...with pictures. :)

I just want to say we had so much fun last night! I became fast friends with all the myoutlanderpurgatory girls (Carol, Tracey, Jenn, Shannon, Serena and others!) and we all had such a great evening. Carol is right, HERSELF is a joy to talk to and she is stunning! She must have been exhausted from all the smiling, posing, and chatting with everyone. I posted a detailed summary of the evening on Compuserve. I'll attach the most important parts of it in the next message.Sally

Sally's Play by Play of ComicCon:Comic Con was verra interesting! On the train ride down from Connecticut, we got a feel for the interesting characters we'd meet... there was a teenager dressed as a doll with a gorgeous pink wig and matching outfit. When we arrived at the convention, it took a little while to figure out where the Panel room was... we were finally directed to the lower level and that's where we started meeting all our internet friends (that we had never seen in person before ). 15 minutes later, Herself arrived resplendent in a beautiful blue flowing outfit, joined by her Exile editor Betsy. It was so exciting to see her walk in!!! She immediatly took some time to take pictures with all the fans waiting for her. We went inside for her presentation on how Exile came together and how she collaborated with Hoang on the different pages in Exile. It was very informative. Following this was a a question and answer period... It was interesting to hear some of the questions people ask (Diana is right...people do and will ask anything!!!). One person asked (in all seriousness) if Diana had ever considered or thought of possibly making Outlander into a movie. I wish we could have typed up on the big screen "rolling eyes"!! Lots of us laughed (which was kind of mean) but Diana was gracious AS USUAL and explained what was going on with the movie. The last part of the presentation was done by Betsy, Diana's editor. She said she wanted to show a small youtube clip (that she thought was sooo funny) of some fans reading the excerpts of Exile (in the back of the green slime Echo in the Bone). Low and behold, on the huge screen they had set up in the panel room, appears the video of Carol and Tracey doing their live skipe of the Exile preview pages. Carol and Tracey were there in the front and were MORTIFIED! It was a really great video of true fans being so excited to see their favorite author's new work. I know they were humbled to have that video shown at Herself's presentation. They are really great ladies and if you have a chance, get over to Diana's youtube site and watch their Exile reaction video.

Ok, so next was the autographing part of the program. We were told the autographing would be done in "Autograph Alley"... which was on the other side of the building where the actual comic book convention was happening. Since most of us didn't want to get lost, we waited for Herself to come out of the panel room so we could follow behind. Well this proved to be rather comical since this group of about 30 people was trying to stay together and follow through all these oddly dressed people, booths, etc... We just kept our eye on the prize, Diana in resplendent blue, at the front of the group... it was almost like she was the Virgin Mary and we were all pilgrims behind her!! Finally, we reached autograph alley and she was able to sign our books, and CDs of the Outlander Musical were also available for sale. It was a really great night and I am so delighted to have been able to share it with all my good Outlander friends and Diana Gabaldon, my favorite author!!!

I was at Comic Con with my dearest friends Shannon, Carol and Tracey. It was such an honor to meet Diana and I was so thoroughly thrilled when Diana and her editor Betsy showed the audience a clip of one of Carol's and Tracey's hilarious videos.

I'm home but the rest of the gang are still in NYC enjoying themselves!

@Sally - Thanks for the report! Great chuckle this morning as I read your description of the journey to the Autograph Room. My vision was a goose and her goslings - arses a waggling! ;-) Thanks again!!!

You guys! It was such an amazing experience! I loved meeting Tracey, Carol, Jenn, Shannon, Sally, Ida, everyone. You guys are even better in person! Sally, thanks for the play by play! It made me feel like I was reliving the whole evening. And seeing Herself in person - what other writer of her caliber would come to a fan dinner, spend the whole evening there, bring her husband, and interact so much? Amazing!! And also, seriously be so beautiful in person. I think there should be a law against anyone else ever wearing that shade of blue- it's definitely DG's color!And watching Tracey and Carol in action plus live blogging the dinner was hysterical. You guys are the best. Thanks so much for organizing! I never would gave gone without you guys.

Canna even express how awesome it was to meet all the MOP lasses (and honorary lads, Sirena and Brandy's hubbies :-) ). This is really the first experience I've had with "meeting" friends I've in reality already gotten to know through the internet, and I can't tell y'all how amazing it was to share stories and hang out with everyone. Sooo looking forward to chat tomorrow night to recap with everyone!!!

Sorry it took me so long to respond everyone... we were in NYC until late this afternoon and I had horrendous wifi in the hotel room. I had to blog from my Crackberry which is a major hassle in and of itself.

I LOVED meeting those of you who were in NYC this weekend... and truly hope to meet the rest of you soon... because Outlander fans are a FUN BUNCH... let me tell ya!!!